High Risk Play for Australian Retailers Opening in a Covid19 Constrained Environment

Interesting emerging dynamic about to land on the shop fronts of Australian retailers that pose serious risks to their staff. And few retailers are ready

 

With moderate level of vaccinations targets achieved, the NSW Government has decided to open up from a #Covid19 lockdown. It does so, relying on compliance enforcement to be undertaken by shop staff. There are no QR codes, no tracking mechanisms currently available to assist those staff or retail businesses.
And herein lay a massive risk to those companies. How many retailers have trained their staff to deal with the aggressive antivaxxer behaviours? The kind of behaviour that sees protesters urinate on The Shrine of Remembrance, punch horses, and spit on nurses and admin staff at testing stations? The kind of behaviour that sees the Kar/vins claim they have a right not to wear a mask that helps protect others, whilst doing their attention seeking social media posts, venting on retail and hospitality staff.
What training have you given to your staff that enables them to protect themselves, their coworkers, other shoppers or your retail store?  What explicit permissions have you given them to stay safe? Because one thing seems clear – your HR Department and legal team will need to deal with claims resulting from a lack of on site safety if you have not provided the training and resources needed.
And maybe, rather than rush to open up all locations, you might like to consider over staffing fewer locations until you have a handle on how things will pan out because as the #FakeTradies protests showed, you will be the subject of intense and unjustifiable attention because you want to open up to just those who’ve chose the side of society as a whole. because the anti-vaxxers understand, all though THEY have the ‘right’ not to get vaccinated, you do NOT have the ‘right’ not to serve them

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